Global warming has been a focus for scientists for many decades. It is now an immediate issue for politicians, resource administrators, business and the general public. The debate centred initially on the rate of use of finite resources such as fossil fuels and the impact that the squandering of non-renewable resources may have on future generations. The debate is now firmly focussed on the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and the influence of this and other gases on warming of the planet. The projected consequences of global warming and inevitable political reaction will impinge on almost everything that we do. Irrespective of the relationship between CO2 emission and global warming there will be an inevitable and substantial rise in the price of fossil fuels. Governments will take measures to try and ameliorate this impact on society. Research will be directed towards this end. Government policies will focus on all mechanisms that can be brought to reduce fossil fuel consumption whilst at the same attempting to maintain the standard of living that has become the norm and expectation of western society.

Forest industries are a much-neglected area in the debate on global warming. There is a generally held perception that as soon as a tree is felled that the CO2 sequestered in the wood is released immediately into the atmosphere. However, this is obviously not the case and in fact the carbon stored in wood products, even in paper that may end up in land-fill, may be stored or sequestered longer than the life cycle of a tree. Misperceptions in relation to forestry, forest industries and agriculture can result in the implementation of policies that are harmful in the quest to reduce carbon emissions.

This lecture presents a perspective on the positive role that forest industries can and should play in attempting to reduce the exploitation of fossil fuels and the techniques that can be employed to assess the cost / benefits of substituting wood and wood based products for the myriad of potential applications currently provided by non-renewable resources.
Speaker: Professor Peter Vinden